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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26342089">Games of Theirs (Emphasis on the Gay)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/onebizarrekai/pseuds/onebizarrekai'>onebizarrekai</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Ficlet Collection, I wrote all these for a saiouma week, M/M, One Shot Collection, Shuichi is so tired, There are a lot of different settings in here, V3 spoilers, there's a phantom thief au one in there too</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 03:34:26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,228</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26342089</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/onebizarrekai/pseuds/onebizarrekai</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“Oh, come on, Saihara,” Kokichi said, grinning. “Don’t act so surprised. Two minutes ago, I said I was going to kiss you, and you didn’t seem to mind.”</p><p>“B-B-But… Y…You’re a…”</p><p>Kokichi paused as Shuichi trailed off into incoherency. “Oh. A… liar,” he finished. Kokichi backed away just slightly, leaving a finger pressed against Shuichi’s mouth. He looked away, pursing his lips. “… Whoops.”</p><p>□■□■□■□</p><p>A collection of shorts featuring two disaster boys.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Oma Kokichi/Saihara Shuichi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>143</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Welcome to Saiou week!</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Games of Theirs (Emphasis on the Gay)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>hello everyone thank you for coming</p><p>here's the lowdown, in order: midgame, pregame (my interpretation, not kagehara), love suite-inspired, hope's peak universe, phantom thief au, midgame again, and finally postgame (which goes with day 2)</p><p>enjoy!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>□■□■ day 1: first kiss □■□■<strike><br/>
</strike></em>
</p><p>When it happened, Shuichi could barely register the passing time. How nice… He found himself just a little bit behind, trying to process the odd warmth enveloping him before it hit him.</p><p>Dry lips were against his. A cold, small hand was touching his own, the gentle touch sending chills down his spine. The action itself had his eyes wanting to flutter shut, offering himself to the welcoming feeling.</p><p>Something wasn’t quite right. About to lean closer, he blinked his eyes open, finally processing that it was Kokichi who was in front of him on the pavement, his slender, bandaged fingers curling over Shuichi’s knuckles. Instantly, Shuichi froze up. Kokichi bit at his bottom lip for a moment before backing away, noticing that Shuichi seemed to have stopped functioning.</p><p>“Saihara…” Kokichi mused. Shuichi’s hand tensed as the other boy brushed his nose against his skin. Shuichi’s mind felt muddled. When exactly had Kokichi gotten this close? He’d hurt himself playing that ridiculous trend game, and Shuichi was patching him up, and then… “Don’t stop playing with me.”</p><p>“W-What?” Shuichi sputtered. Kokichi breathed a giggle. The sound hit Shuichi’s eardrum, spilling a nervous feeling over him, his whole body freezing stiff. Kokichi lifted a finger, dragging it down from Shuichi’s shoulder to his chest.</p><p>“Our game is special now, Saihara,” Kokichi told him. “You played with me five times, and now your fate is sealed.” Shuichi’s mouth hung open slightly. He tried to speak, but Kokichi held a finger up to his lips. “In fact… you’ve sold your soul to me.”</p><p>“O-Ouma–??” Shuichi stammered anyway, his heart hammering. They were still skin to skin, lips nearly touching. “I-I–Wait a second–”</p><p>“Oh, come on, Saihara,” Kokichi said, grinning. “Don’t act so surprised. Two minutes ago, I said I was going to kiss you, and you didn’t seem to mind.”</p><p>“B-B-But… Y…You’re a…”</p><p>Kokichi paused as Shuichi trailed off into incoherency. “Oh. A… liar,” he finished. Kokichi backed away just slightly, leaving a finger pressed against Shuichi’s mouth. He looked away, pursing his lips. “… Whoops.”</p><p>“You…  You didn’t lie?” Shuichi asked.</p><p>“Haha whoops!” Kokichi repeated quickly, smiling more nervously than normal. “Thanks for the bandages, new slave! I’m gonna go harass Momota!”</p><p>Kokichi scrambled to his feet and sprinted away at lightning speed. “Ouma–! Wait! Come back!” Shuichi fell over on the lawn as the other disappeared from sight.</p><p>He was almost in shock, lying on his stomach in the grass, his arms propping him up.</p><p>
  <em>… What the hell just happened?</em>
</p><p>
  <em>□■□■ day 2: past life □■□■<strike><br/>
</strike></em>
</p><p>“Kokichi, I… I don’t think I like this plan.”</p><p>The room fell dead silent. Kokichi’s eyes suddenly blank, they drifted up to the boy with the hat near him. He swallowed, turning his head away and blowing out some air. Kokichi fished for words, just for a moment, chewing on his lip. His eyes moved back, and Shuichi seemed to avert his gaze.</p><p>“You wanna stop Danganronpa, don’t you, Shu?” Kokichi asked after the brief silence. “You know that I do too. There’s no point in even lying about that.”</p><p>“Y-Yes, but…!” Shuichi started. “This is a big deal. It might not work out. Everything might go badly. I… I don’t want to…”</p><p>“If you don’t want to, then you don’t have to audition,” Kokichi cut him off. “But I’ve done my research.”</p><p>“No! I just don’t want to forget you!” Shuichi told him, suddenly shouting. He recoiled at the sound of his own voice, slamming his mouth shut. “And… Y…You’ll forget me if you go alone, and what if… dammit.” He grabbed the bill of his hat, trying to shield his face. Kokichi walked up to him, gazing under the shadows it cast over his eyes.</p><p>Silence hung over Kokichi’s dark apartment–silence except Shuichi’s muffled sobs. He held one hand over his mouth, trembling, fighting against them all the while. Shuichi flinched as Kokichi took his other hand, his own fingers gently grasping his palm.</p><p>“I would never forget you,” Kokichi told him sternly. He let out a huff of air, a weak smile flashing on his cheeks. “Not even if I tried.”</p><p>“… but that’s a lie, isn’t it?” Shuichi uttered.</p><p>Kokichi looked down at their hands for a moment. He looked up at Shuichi, smiling again before lifting his other hand to stroke his cheek.</p><p>“Shu…” he started quietly. “Help me change the world. They’ll never see it coming. They couldn’t stop us if they tried. And… I want you to be by my side when it happens.”</p><p>Shuichi lifted up an arm, wiping the tears from his face on his sleeve. “You know… only you’re crazy enough to come up with something like this,” he said.</p><p>Kokichi’s smile grew somewhat entertained at the comment. “You know, they hired an intern director,” he said. “This season is gonna be really bad. That’s why I’m so confident about the loopholes, you know.”</p><p>Shuichi let out a small hum. He closed his eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath. He reached to the top of his head, removing his hat. When he opened his eyes again, the moonlight shone through the window on them in a way Kokichi knew he had scarcely seen. If he hadn’t been so distracted by this, he would’ve been busy laughing at the antenna of hair that bounced straight up after Shuichi took his cap off.</p><p>“Well… it won’t kill us,” he said firmly. “Everything sucks. Might as well try. I… can’t let you go alone.”</p><p>Kokichi slowly placed a hand on Shuichi’s chest, taking a moment to glance at it before looking back up at him. “… You’re the best partner in crime I could ask for, Shu,” Kokichi replied. “The setting’s not super romantic, but it’s a close second.”</p><p>He went up on his toes, tilting his head up to give Shuichi a kiss. The other boy leaned down, accepting it nervously. They remained there for a moment before Shuichi stood back up, biting his own lip.</p><p>“Hey, Kokichi?” he started. Kokichi gave him a quizzical look. “We should… tell the others about this. I think… Akamatsu will be really concerned.”</p><p>Kokichi puffed out his cheeks for a moment. “Well, Akamatsu can come with us if she wants to babysit you,” he said.</p><p>Shuichi opened his mouth to speak before closing it again. His eyes darted about as if calculating.</p><p>Kokichi blinked at him. “That… that was a <em>lie</em>, Shu, we’re not…”</p><p>“Momota too! If we’re all in on it together, then that should make it even better–!”</p><p>“<em>Okay, Shuichi</em>–”</p><p>
  <em>□■□■ day 3: fantasy □■□■<br/>
</em>
</p><p>“Come on, Saihara… Play with me…”</p><p>Shuichi’s head spun. The world felt fuzzy, like a dream–was it a dream? Maybe it was a dream. How did he and Kokichi get here? Kokichi was a phantom thief, right? Shuichi had chased him here from… Wait.</p><p>Kokichi was holding him down to a bed, grip firmly planted on both of Shuichi’s wrists. “Let’s do a lot more together,” he mused, leaning past Shuichi’s cheek. Chills danced over the detective’s spine while everything blurred.</p><p>“W-Wait,” Shuichi choked out. His voice felt broken and hit his ears like static. “Ouma, wait–!”</p><p>Kokichi did wait. The supreme leader paused, leaning back up. His playful expression was gone, but only for a half second.</p><p>“… Hahaha,” he laughed weakly. “Just kidding. Kidding, kidding, kidding.” Kokichi backed away from Shuichi and the bed, bumping the wall behind him. “Juuust kidding…” With every repetition of the word, it seemed to hit Shuichi’s ears harder than before. Kokichi was about to run. A feeling swept over Shuichi, and he reached out, grabbing Kokichi’s wrist right as his leg was about to leave the ground.</p><p>The supreme leader glanced back. He was watching Shuichi, his arm limp in his grasp.</p><p>“… You’re funny, Mr. Detective,” Kokichi said. “Make up your mind.”</p><p>“Just tell me what you want,” Shuichi told him. “For real.”</p><p>Kokichi turned his body. He took a step towards Shuichi, and another, like he’d just done minutes ago. Little space between them now, Kokichi looked up at him. Everything around them seemed to spin and spin.</p><p>“You,” Kokichi mumbled as Shuichi still held his arm. “I’m going to steal you away, Saihara.”</p><p>Shuichi’s voice got stuck in his throat. Kokichi grabbed him by the shirt, pulling him down for a kiss that locked perfectly. Relentless, yearning, so much stronger than any other message Kokichi had ever sent Shuichi–the kiss enveloped him, the smaller boy taking him. Did this feel right? Did this feel strange? Static, static.</p><p>Shuichi found himself on the bed again. Kokichi was situated directly over him, taking, taking, taking; Shuichi was frozen, helpless, and when he felt Kokichi’s fingertips graze his stomach, pulling buttons, his whole mind swam in a distracted sea. He was kissing back by now, yes. Something felt so right. So strange. So… dizzy. Shuichi’s fingers brushed through Kokichi’s locks, grazing the back of his head, and something felt so distant.</p><p>“Saihara,” Kokichi uttered. He leaned back just enough for them to make eye contact. “Can I tell you a little secret?” He was giggling. Shuichi was confused.</p><p>Kokichi’s expression fell completely dark, shadows enveloping his eyes in an instant, two inches away from Shuichi’s face.</p><p>“I’m the mastermind.”</p><p>Shuichi’s blood ran cold. His breath got stuck in his throat for a moment before he gasped for air, the world hitting him like bricks as every hazy feeling he had was overshadowed by fear. In a cold sweat, he shot awake.</p><p>He realized just that–he was awake. </p><p>Goosebumps covered his arms, his blankets in a mess. His room was still dark. It wasn’t morning, but he could barely even think about it, his breath still catching in his lungs and fists still tightened over his bed covers.</p><p>He didn’t have any words to describe what he just experienced, and he didn’t know if he wanted any.</p><p>
  <em>□■□■ day 4: dance □■□■</em>
</p><p>Shuichi’s mouth was hanging open, hundreds of thoughts shooting through his head. He was struggling with deciding what to focus on in this exact moment. God, there was so much to look at. What was happening?</p><p>Kaede was face palming next to him. Was she entertained or confused as well? Kaito was sitting at his desk, his eyes wide open and completely unmoving like he couldn’t even process it. Maki’s face was blank as she blinked slowly.</p><p>Yes, those were fireworks. Fireworks directly on Hope’s Peak school ground, fireworks of hearts and stars, but most notably, fireworks of Shuichi’s name. The flashy displays started to spell sentences. People who were outside trying to go back home or to their dorms left the scene in a panic. Some were left shouting, but too afraid to approach any closer, while others were cheering, probably having figured out what was happening already.</p><p>After all of the words had shot up, they distinctly spelled “Shuichi Saihara, go to prom with me,” finally followed up with a cartoon graphic of Kokichi Ouma’s face. Shuichi didn’t know what to feel. No, of course he was over the top. <em>Of course</em>. Wait, Kokichi was asking him to <em>prom</em>?</p><p>A few fireworks later, “PS, it’s not a lie.” Shuichi brought a hand to his face. Why was Kokichi so extra?</p><p>The closet door of that same classroom hit the wall and the supreme leader himself paraded out like it was everyone’s business. Kaito and Maki both looked back over to Shuichi like they’d known nothing about this, while Kaede sighed, seeming a little more in the know. Kokichi had a big, glittering sign in his hands with those same words–prom–his eyes glittering almost the same amount. He was bouncing with glee, a bright smile on his face. His other hand had an oversized rose bouquet, and he looked like he was carrying a few too many things already.</p><p>“Saiharaaaaa,” he cooed, waiting for something to happen. “Did you like the fireworks?”</p><p>“God–where the heck did you get fireworks?” Shuichi asked, lowering his hand.</p><p>“Stole them from Komaeda. Go to prom with me!” Kokichi bounced up and down. “If you say no, I’ll TP your house and all your loved ones.”</p><p>Shuichi looked over at Kaede. She spread her lips into a flat line, nodding slowly and knowingly. Kaito and Maki didn’t even know what to make of this.</p><p>“…  Okay,” Shuichi replied. Kokichi threw his arms up in the air, tossing the sign behind him while he cheered right in the middle of Shuichi’s word.</p><p>“Yaaaay!” Kokichi cheered. He bounded up to Shuichi, shoved the flowers into his hands and grabbed his arm to lead him away. “Sorry guys, I gotta borrow him! See you later!”</p><p>Shuichi was helpless to his antics, getting dragged out of the room.</p><p>“… You look like you know something,” Maki said, glancing over at Kaede.</p><p>“Well, he asked me to make sure Saihara was here when this happened… I did talk him out of his original plan,” Kaede replied. “He was going to stage a kidnapping. I guess Ouma cares enough about Saihara to believe me when I told him it would only scare him out of his mind.”</p><p>Kaito had his head in his hands. “Kidnapping… Somehow I’m not even surprised by this,” he mumbled.</p><p>
  <em>□■□■ day 5: rain/stars □■□■</em>
</p><p>“Nice to see you again, Detective.”</p><p>The rain was pouring that night, hammering on the roof of the wealthy museum. Shuichi was standing at the other end of the extravagant room, wondering if he should dare inch closer to the thief. No, surely the other would want him to. The leader of DICE was far from afraid of getting closer than one would believe comfortable for a criminal trying to evade capture.</p><p>“You never fail to show, huh?” the phantom thief asked, throwing his arms to the side. His ridiculous, over-the-top cape flounced in the air behind him with the movement. His presence always felt unreal. For sure, he was in this for thrill, for a face, for something, otherwise he wouldn’t dress like a character straight out of a kid’s cartoon. He was always wearing a mask, too–Shuichi had never seen his face, but he’d come pretty darn close a few times.</p><p>The thief would always slip away, disappearing into the night no matter how strongly Shuichi believed he had at least something of an upper hand that time around. They’d meet, again and again; Shuichi just kept running, and running. The thief definitely noticed the recurrence a long time ago. It became their own personal game to him. How did Shuichi feel about it, on the other hand? He was just doing his job, right?</p><p>Shuichi didn’t have to move closer. The thief dropped in front of him, pacing around him without a care in the world. He was fairly small… approximately five feet. Dark hair hung by his cheeks and curled outward in big, dramatic sweeps.</p><p>“I’d ask you why you bother,” the thief started. A medium-ranged voice, bearing the smallest amount of higher-pitched jest. The sound circled around him, echoing and sinking into Shuichi’s mind. “But I love the way you chase me and never ever give up. Say, what if I told you that I just kept doing this because I wanted you to chase me, Detective Saihara?”</p><p>Shuichi’s mind relapsed. He <em>was</em> just doing his job… yes?</p><p>The mask on the thief’s face concealed all his features, but he placed a hand on his chest, posing. “You’re really special, you know,” he said. “I’m so glad we get to be totally alone like this so often.” Childish mannerisms, that was for sure. </p><p>Shuichi jolted back into reality. He moved in an instant, narrowly missing the thief’s wrist as he tried to handcuff him to himself, but the smaller one danced aside like it was nothing.</p><p>“Ah, ah, ah! Can’t have any of that. It’s gonna be harder than that to get me. Tag, you’re it!” The phantom thief tapped Shuichi on the shoulder, bounding away into the darkness.</p><p>“Hey–No!” Shuichi finally shouted, finding words. He dashed off after the other. There they went again.</p><p>He chased him, and chased him, as he always did. This was their game. The detective, reaching an arm he wasn’t sure would ever reach the thief, while the mysterious stranger teased him all the while, slipping truths among the lies he spilt like he was providing Shuichi a puzzle to put together piece by piece.</p><p>Did Shuichi grow obsessed? No, perhaps the better question would be when he grew obsessed. The thief’s game. Shuichi’s mystery, all the same. How familiar it grew to feel, even if they were only strangers. Strangers, strangers, strangers…</p><p>“Kokichi Ouma.”</p><p>Another night they met, stars in the sky above their encounter on a roof. The city lights obstructed many of them, yet there they persisted to shine, as if signifying something so very important.</p><p>“Oh, so you learned my name, Detective?”</p><p>The thief reached up, taking off his mask like it meant nothing. He’d done this before–that was how Shuichi tracked down his name. It was almost akin to an acceptance of some fragment of defeat, but the action had been with purpose. More hints, handpicked for the thief’s game.</p><p>Seeing the thief’s face always stole a breath from Shuichi. This person he’d been pursuing for ages, greeting him more and more closely while the detective reached for him, the other always barely out of his grasp.</p><p>What would Shuichi do once he caught him?</p><p>“It took a lot of work.”</p><p>“Yet, you haven’t told a soul,” Kokichi replied. Tap after tap against the ground, he drew closer. Shuichi felt his heart hitting his chest. “I’m so special to you… you wanted to tell me first. I’m so touched, Detective Saihara.”</p><p>Shuichi swallowed thickly. He couldn’t even find it in him to retort, reject his claims as false; maybe he did want to tell him. Was he insane? Was Kokichi special somehow? This was ridiculous.</p><p>“You could’ve thrown my name out… my face… yet you wanted to keep it <em>all to yourself</em>.”</p><p>The thief’s words weren’t sitting right. So mocking, so jeering, yet it was certainly all Kokichi must have ever wanted. Shuichi knew how he’d spoken to him in the past.</p><p>Kokichi had no problems getting close and comfortable these days. Even if Shuichi managed to cuff him, he’d manage to get away somehow. “That sure does create some problems with your credibility, now doesn’t it?” he asked, the words cutting through the detective.</p><p>“Stop,” Shuichi finally said.</p><p>Kokichi laughed. The smile on his face was wide, toothy, and completely hollow. “If you love me so much, what are you going to do when you finally have to arrest me?” he continued to question. He brought a finger to his own lips that Shuichi dared not stare at. “Unless you don’t… but why won’t you deny it?”</p><p>“I said <em>stop</em>!” Shuichi snapped. “What’s wrong with you?”</p><p>The thief let out a hum, much too close by now. They were next to the roof railing, the city lights shining from the streets below. “Shuichi Saihara…” he mused. “What if I told you that I’m deeply, deeply in love with you?”</p><p>Shuichi’s blood chilled as Kokichi reached up to touch his face. “… You’re a liar. I’m not falling for this,” the detective replied.</p><p>“What do you think my motivations are?”</p><p>“… Freedom.”</p><p>The thief giggled again. “What if they are?”</p><p>Cryptic, cryptic, so horribly cryptic. Shuichi hated it. No one so mysterious, no one so puzzling, no one so infuriating… He could never stop thinking about it.</p><p>Was he in love or deranged?</p><p>“Two star-crossed lovers, a detective and a thief… isn’t that just beautiful?” Kokichi said.</p><p>“You’re insane,” Shuichi rasped. He sucked in air as the thief grabbed him by the tie and pulled him down.</p><p>“You bask in this insanity right along with me. You can’t even try to lie to me. After all… I’m the king of lies.”</p><p>The whole world seemed to stop as Kokichi closed the distance between their lips for the first time. A scenario Shuichi passed off as an intrusive thought again and again, breathing itself to life right against his skin.</p><p>The worst thing about it was that he didn’t want to push himself away.</p><p>No, all over again, Kokichi was going to flee, and Shuichi wouldn’t be able to stop him. He reached out, about to entrap Kokichi in his arms to prevent him from leaving yet again, but at the faintest of movements, the thief swept himself away, slipping behind Shuichi before the detective could even realize what had happened.</p><p>“Catch me if you can, my beloved.” Kokichi dropped a wave. He vaulted himself away, sparing Shuichi one last smirk before he put his mask back on.</p><p>Shuichi’s skin was tingling, too many different things erupting in his chest to make sense of any of it.</p><p>He bolted off in pursuit all the same.</p><p>
  <em>□■□■ day 6: appreciation day (see end note) □■□■</em>
</p><p>“Good morning, my beloved Saihara!”</p><p>Shuichi had a terrible idea. Terrible? Curious? Strange? He wasn’t really thinking about the adjectives. Kokichi greeted him with terms of endearment on a regular basis, and while Shuichi didn’t know why, one certain thought was starting to poke at the back of his mind, and he felt a nerve to test it.</p><p>“Good morning, my beloved Ouma,” Shuichi responded, the smallest of smiles on his face. He dared, just slightly, to imitate the subtly smug expression Kokichi had shown him so often.</p><p>Kokichi froze. Right on the spot, he only stood there, his mouth hanging just slightly open. He blinked a single time before disappearing so quickly he may as well have teleported, not another word.</p><p>This was it. Shuichi had won every war to come. Shuichi one, Kokichi zero. At least, this was what he wanted to think. It couldn’t have been that simple–no, not with that inkling that soon appeared in his head and told him it wasn’t over.</p><p>Wasn’t over how, he asked himself. No, Kokichi wouldn’t give up that easily. Was that what it was? No, not that either. Shuichi wasn’t done. He didn’t feel done. Kokichi leaving him alone was anticlimactic. Why would Kokichi give up so easily, anyway?</p><p>Shuichi was definitely overthinking all of this. Kokichi disappeared one time, but now that Shuichi had finally gotten rid of him, he wanted to know why that worked. Maybe this was what really made him a detective.</p><p>Another tiny thought tried to urge him towards considering that he wanted to see if he could insinuate more of a reaction from Kokichi than just a poker face, but Shuichi didn’t really want to listen to that one.</p><p>“Ouma, you really freaked me out at breakfast when you ran away like that,” Shuichi told him later after slaving over tracking him down for about an hour. “Why did you run away?” Maybe Shuichi was already playing with fire, trying to lie to the resident compulsive liar. Freaked out? He wouldn’t exactly describe it anything like that.</p><p>“Ah, Saihara!” Kokichi chirped, clearly having hit the reset button on his feelings already. “I had to pee. You weren’t <em>worried</em> about me, were you?”</p><p>“Well… of course I was,” Shuichi replied. Oh, he was on fire now. His heart was already pounding hard enough that he could almost feel his blood circulating. “You completely disappeared out of nowhere.”</p><p>“Or maybe you were suspicious of me?” Kokichi asked instead, bringing a finger to his lips. “You’re a terrible liar, Saihara.”</p><p>“Or maybe I just wanted to see you,” Shuichi told him instead. Huh, something felt satisfying about that.</p><p>Kokichi’s grin grew into something otherworldly. Shuichi felt a wave of absolute terror, unsure of what to make of this. This wasn’t a horrible idea, right?</p><p>“Saihara, Saihara, Saihara,” Kokichi cooed, walking towards the detective until his back hit a wall. Even though he personally towered over Kokichi, the threat emanating off his person was incomprehensible. “You really want to play my own game against me, don’t you? You’re so adorable.”</p><p>Heat rushed to Shuichi’s face. Fight, or surrender? Shuichi was fairly used to being more passive and backing down in situations like this, but Kokichi, god, Kokichi–he was so curious.</p><p>“You weren’t expecting that, were you?” Shuichi asked him.</p><p>Kokichi let out a hum. His shadowed grin fell into a smirk that sent a chill down Shuichi’s spine. “Then again, I love games,” the supreme leader said. “Do you think you can outplay me, Saihara?”</p><p>Shuichi’s instincts were telling him otherwise, but the offer was so strangely tempting. Ignoring his anxious mind and sweating palms, he stood his ground. “Well, I haven’t run away so far, unlike you. Maybe I can,” he said.</p><p>“<em>Ouch</em>,” Kokichi said, pouting. “You’re so mean!” He broke into giggles. Shuichi noted that there was still very little distance between them, and his back was still against the wall. “You’re in for a whole new world of hell, my beloved Saihara. I simply… cannot <em>wait</em> to tear you apart.”</p><p>Shuichi’s heart skipped for a reason that he couldn’t articulate. Was he terrified? Yes, absolutely. Was he getting closer and closer to caring just a bit less? Maybe. There was something about Kokichi that made Shuichi less scared of the ideas spinning in his head, including the stupid one that was floating around at the moment.</p><p>“Hey, Ouma?”</p><p>“What is it?”</p><p>Shuichi leaned down, cupping Kokichi’s cheek with one hand and laying a gentle kiss on the opposite side. “You’re on,” he uttered.</p><p>Kokichi’s face went completely blank again. If Shuichi wasn’t mistaken, his eyes were even slightly wide. Backing away, Shuichi turned to leave, unable to help displaying the slightest of smiles on his face.</p><p>Kokichi started to laugh again behind him. “… This is gonna be so much fun, Saihara,” he said.</p><p>
  <em>□■□■ day 7: free day □■□■</em>
</p><p>If Shuichi had been looking at it from any earlier angle, his anxiousness to visit Kokichi of all people after waking up from the game would have been seen as strange. Shouldn’t he have wanted to visit literally anyone else? Everyone was alive, Danganronpa was a big show, they’d willingly signed up for it… several absurd bouts of information in a row.</p><p>The final moments of the game had left a pit in Shuichi’s stomach, not that the word did the feeling justice. He saw his audition tape and wanted to throw up, even if something didn’t seem quite right about it. No, what mattered was that the game collasped in on itself, and that in the end, they’d done what was right: ended the game.</p><p>The doctors didn’t let anyone who was in the game visit each other for a while, probably because everyone was a psychological mess, although that didn’t make it any less infuriating. Shuichi was still trying to wrap his head around why all of this was somehow okay. What kind of messed up world did they live in where people signed up for a killing game where they would erase their memories? Did Shuichi’s experience in the game really change him that much as a person?</p><p>Over time, reality started to sink back in. His memories of the game were still clear, but other memories started to grow stronger than the blur he had during the game. Those must have been his real memories. He was informed that it may be jarring, but Shuichi felt the opposite way–the more he remembered, the more grounded he felt.</p><p>He started remembering faces from the killing game <em>outside</em> of the killing game. He knew some of them beforehand. Shuichi didn’t know what to make of this. No, the face that stuck out to him the most was Kokichi’s. He’d try, and try, straining himself to remember why the face of the liar never left his mind as the days passed.</p><p>
  <em>“Help me change the world.”</em>
</p><p>Shuichi felt like the air had been sucked out of his lungs. Screw the doctors, screw the regulations–he was going to go see Kokichi. He wasn’t exactly strong, though, and barreling through the hospital until he found Kokichi’s room wasn’t feasible, so he ended up resorting to nighttime stealth instead.</p><p>His head was spinning with memories, and as painful as it was, he was finally receiving answers that he wanted, and there was no way that he was stopping now.</p><p>Kokichi was staring out the window. His fists clenched against the blanket of his bed for just a moment as Shuichi ducked into his room, and he turned his head, but Shuichi daresay he saw Kokichi respond with the first readable expression he had seen him make in a long time.</p><p>“… Saihara,” Kokichi uttered.</p><p>Shuichi still wasn’t quite sure what to do. He approached slowly, stopping by the side of the bed. His memories of the game were still mixed up with all of the new information, and it was hard to know how to feel around Kokichi because of it. Wait, now that he was here, what was he even supposed to say?</p><p>Kokichi smiled softly. It wasn’t malicious, mischeivous–maybe this was the first time Shuichi had seen a normal smile from him ever since the game. “… Or maybe I should say Shu,” Kokichi finished.</p><p>Shuichi swallowed, nodding briefly as the sentence internalized. It was strange, Kokichi actually saying something that aligned with Shuichi’s newfound old memories. Right, they had met before; they’d met online, met up… Shuichi knelt down by the bedside, almost averting his eyes from Kokichi before he decided he was going to remain done with old habits and looked Kokichi directly in the eye.</p><p>“… Hey, Shu?” Kokichi started, reaching forward to take Shuichi’s hand. “I told you things would work out.”</p><p>“I have this weird feeling,” Shuichi told him, closing his fingers around Kokichi’s. “I think I want to smack you upside the head. <em>Fuck</em> you. You’re insane.”</p><p>Kokichi cackled, hunching forward with every weak laugh. He kicked his legs out from under the covers, sliding out to join Shuichi on the floor. “I love you too,” he said. “And hey! You didn’t die a brutal death.”</p><p>Shuichi wanted to laugh, but he couldn’t do it. “Um… Kokichi,” he said. It was weird to call him by his first name again. “There… there was a lot of stuff that happened during the game.”</p><p>“… Hey,” Kokichi started again. “Can we save it? I’m still riding on the euphoria of knowing that I totally won at life.”</p><p>“… Yeah. I’m sure facing everyone is going to be a bit more than scary for you.”</p><p>Kokichi let out a small laugh, lifting a hand up to Shuichi’s cheek. It was a strange familiarity that clashed with all of the dissolving fears Shuichi still had from the game. “Shu,” the smaller boy said before slowly standing up. “Come here.”</p><p>Shuichi followed him to his feet before Kokichi pulled him sideways onto the small bed. They were eye to eye for a moment before Kokichi snuggled down into his arms. Shuichi felt embarrassment creep into his cheeks; he was still getting re-used to Kokichi being at least somewhat forward with him.</p><p>Everything was strange and confusing with the conflicting memories and feelings, but maybe things would all turn out okay if he held onto this tiny fragment of peace.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>day 6 was inspired by this post by chaseshka: https://onebizarrekai.tumblr.com/post/625178819659251712/chasechka-nobody-loves-shyhara-more-than-me</p><p>I would link the original post and not my own blog, but sadly, tumblr broke the permalink.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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